The present invention pertains to a bottle handling plant with the features described in the preamble of the principal claim.
Such a bottle handling plant has been known from WO 99/55604. It comprises at least one bottle producer, to which at least one bottle transfer unit is connected, which transfers the bottles produced onto individual trays or intermediate carriers, which can then be conveyed with a conveying means to a handling station, e.g., a filling plant or a palletizing unit or the like. A storage facility for the intermediate buffering of the empty trays or the trays loaded with bottles may be connected to the conveying means. The trays are conveyed individually on the conveying means in this prior-art bottle handling plant.
The object of the present invention is to provide a further improved bottle handling plant.
According to the invention a bottle handling plant for handling and especially conveying bottles is provided with a bottle feed means such as a bottle producer or other a bottle source and at least one bottle transfer unit as well as a plurality of trays for the bottles. A conveyor and optionally at least one discharge or loading station and preferably a palletizing unit and at least one handling station are provided. The bottles are conveyed to the discharge or loading station within the plant and/or to the handling station or handling stations located within the plant in one or more tray stacks. The tray stacks are formed by stackable trays which have said closed side walls and tightly surround the bottles.
In the bottle handling plant, the trays are designed as stackable containers, which tightly and protectively surround the bottles. In the tray stacks stacked up, the trays can be conveyed on a corresponding conveying means within the plant and they can also transported over land. Plastic bottles, especially PET bottles, can be produced as a result in a central area with high production capacities and they can be conveyed in the tray stack in a protected manner and with small space requirement to the handling stations as well as to a stack storage facility within the plant, or they can be transported to external handling stations located at a greater distance. The bottles are accommodated in the tray stack in a protected manner and hygienically during the conveying and transport. In most cases, they do not require any additional protective measures, which also applies to the overland transport, i.e., transportation to points outside the plant and possibly over greater distances.
The stackable trays increase the capacity and the throughput of the bottle handling plant. Due to stacks being formed, the length of the conveying means can be reduced despite the high bottle throughput. In addition, the use of parallel main and secondary sections and of main and secondary sections connected with switches at the conveying means is advantageous for tying in the bottle transfer unit and the other handling stations. Jams at the loading and unloading points are avoided as a result.
The bottle producers and the handling stations are preferably connected to the conveying means via a tray circulation each. The trays are stacked up and unstacked at the bottle transfer unit in the tray circulation. The trays can thus be loaded and unloaded very rapidly.
The tray stacks can be conveyed directly by means of the conveying means to the handling stations, especially a filling plant, etc. As an alternative or in addition, it is also possible to tie in an intermediate storage facility, in which the trays are stored in the stack. Buffering and equalization of the capacities between the bottle producers producing over a rather long period of time and the handling stations operating more rapidly, especially filling plants, takes place via the intermediate storage facility.
Due to the suitable design of their side walls and their bottoms, the trays can be stacked directly one on top of another with a mutual positive-locking guiding. The positive-locking guiding is one of the possibilities of tightly surrounding and enclosing the bottles. An empty tray or a special cover may be put on for the upper tight closure of the tray stack.
The trays and the bottle handling plant are suitable for bottles of different types and sizes. Larger bottles can be transferred by the bottle transfer unit in the upright position in the manner known from WO 99/55605 and ordered to form one layer on the trays. As an alternative, small bottles, which are less suitable for an ordered transfer, can be filled by the bottle transfer unit randomly like bulk goods into corresponding suitable trays. The small bottles can also be stored intermediately in this layer, in which case they are removed from the trays by another bottle transfer unit before filling or another handling operation in a suitable manner and put up and ordered in a layer that is suitable for handling.
The present invention makes possible the better and more gentle handling of the relatively sensitive small PET bottles compared with the state of the art. The filling of the bottles into large silos, which has hitherto been usual, can be avoided. The smaller trays also have the advantage that the small bottles in the lower layers are not deformed and squashed by the own weight of the bottles weighing on them. Intermediate storage in smaller drums and trays is, in addition, more favorable for the further handling and especially the filling of the bottles. Moreover, the long conveyor belts for connecting silos and filling plants, which were usually used hitherto and are expensive to build, can be eliminated with the bottle handling plant according to the present invention and the standardized tray transport.
The bottle handling plant according to the present invention is, moreover, substantially more flexible than prior-art plants. Besides the higher capacity, it also offers the advantage of greater diversification. Completely different types of bottles and bottle formats can be produced or introduced and intermediately stored or filled or handled in other ways within one plant. In particular, the particular amounts of the different bottles can also be set and handled as desired in this case.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.